Cornithaca County – Rural Tompkins County

The Secret Cornell 5

Like a needle thin trail of blood; or the first faint whiff of putrescence: there is that foreknowledge, a taint, a thin sheen of fear that smears the activities of those in College Town: born of the need to conform.

Ithaca is not a welcoming place. It’s a place where other thoughts are not welcome – where visitors need a reason. A place where your adherence to doctrine is casually checked within the first few sentences of a social meeting – and everything depends on it.

I first heard of “Cornell Paranoia” from a blogger expressing fear to write about, or even link to my work: she was afraid that her bosses would find out and she would lose her job. “Cornell Paranoia” was uttered with a fragile smile.

Cornell is not a beacon of enlightenment: it’s a centrality of power – and rural people bear the marks of its well-worn club.

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People like to say “polarized” these days; for the same reason they label issues “controversial” – so they can file them away as finished business. “Polarized” is a blanket term that poorly covers the mound of intolerance and hate that this millennium keeps adding to.

Were the Nazis and the Jews “polarized”? I think there are better words for the relationship.

“The World According to Doctrine” is published

It’s been said that the greatest enemy of democracy is corruption. And when the very idea of democracy has been corrupted; we are without compass on a dangerous path.

Once more we must win through what we thought was behind us.

Evil recycles,

Doug Baird, Cornithaca County, September 25, 2023

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJXGKDCF/

“The World According to Doctrine” — Ithaca Bookburning Festival Poster

Next month? Next year? It’s coming! You can feel it in the air. It’s not smoke from Canadian wildfires that’s fogging the air and keeping people indoors. It’s a Doctrine of privilege and hate.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Multi-Bumper Sticker layout H

More bumper stickers; less space. More of your thoughts – no text added. Does thinking increase or reduce stress? It adds some stress of course — but it helps to remove that “Oh, My God!” moment — and increases your lifespan.

“The World According to Doctrine” — The Greater Good follows Cornell around

The very word “greater” is emblematic of the reversal of the 1960’s vision of equality for all. Everyone and everything is now categorized and treated differently: according to the dictatorial vision of a government that refuses to answer the questions of citizens; or acknowledge their individual worth.

Important. There, I said it. “Important” is the slide-to-the-side avoidance of openly announcing the corruption and cronyism at the heart of our government’s decision making process. “They are important because . . .” And while Tompkins County’s corporations, institutions, and selected groups are Important – Cornell is IMPORTANT.

But how can they get away with this “methodology of muchness”?

There is no room here for even a discussion of “Urban Colonialism” and its practices – but I’ll give you one example: Environmental Justice. Environmental Justice is mapped to Census Tracts; but Census Tracts are mapped to population: so, in rural areas, these tracts are very large. Large enough to contain the rezoned lakefront homes of Cornell’s affluent elite – and the rural poor living in a trailer park miles away. [By “trailer park” I mean a row of single-wides in a field with a dirt road.] It’s an urban methodology that blends away rural poverty and marginalization into non-existence — and it’s an important tool in Urban Colonialism’s expansion.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Doctrine Hopscotch Layout

I wanted to get this out for the Labor Day weekend – before school starts up for the fall. It’s based on the “Obey! OK?” Cornithaca County warning sign – and played: 1, 2-3, 4, 5-6, 7, 8-9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14-15, 16, 17.

The finished page will include a suitable doctrinal rhyme, of course. Maybe something like: “One is for the doctrine that protects you — Two is for you doubly to take care — Three is for the sign that you’re conspiring — Four is for the footsteps on the stair . . .”

“The World According to Doctrine” — “Under New Management”

Everything must be passed for suitability. The pretense of caring has never been more artificial than in the post-recent-Pandemic days. It’s almost as if what we used to consider humanity has been reimagined in its most Darwinian and mechanistic terms. Compassion is a tool for acquiring; and empathy is a fable for the reality impaired. Art, music, and literature are no longer a means of creation; but of replication – a mechanism covered with human skins. One Thought – One Taught – One Voice – One Choice. One — and then none. “Under New Management” and “Going Out of Business” in a single generation.

“The World According to Doctrine” — Education Flow Chart

Education has become a clerical job: and all the bureaucracy has come along with it. No more fellow students saying: “You got a hard teacher!” – everybody grades the same, everybody teaches the same, every student is taught to conform. Even “diversity” is limited to that which conforms to a strict definition and even more restrictive categorization. We’ve created a society of Skinner Box kids; where thinking “out of the box” is strictly “off the shelf.” How can you meet the challenges of the future when you can’t even meet the challenges of the present? In a pass/fail reality – we’ll just have to do the last millennium all over again. “Bring out your dead.”

“The World According to Doctrine” — New Bell-shaped Curves: “The Flatline”

Tompkins County’s Progressive government has progressed beyond democracy and representation — to a flat-out dictatorship. Citizens get to attend “Public Hearings” – where they get to hear what will happen; and submit comments – that are filed and stored and then discarded to make room for more comments. Take it or leave it; there’s nothing you can do about it. “Questions? . . . We’ve had trouble with you before. . .

“The World According to Doctrine” — More Urbites 11: “Traffic Jamming”

It’s all stonewalling and pushback when rural residents try to implement traffic control measures. The same County that enforces a maximum speed limit of 30 mph on all roads traveling through the City of Ithaca; refuses to post any limits in their County-controlled rural roads. And in spite of the accidents and entreaties of residents: they have refused to patrol these roads – encouraging an ever-increasing flood of reckless workers, students, and commercial vehicles who know they’ll never get a ticket. Even with documented evidence of the most blatant disregard of law and human life – the have never once acknowledged that there is a problem. They sit there like stone-faced judges in a wall of indifference. They covet our land — without us. Urban Colonialism.